Posted on 08/14/2021 4:55:56 PM PDT by Capt. Tom
CHIMNEY CORNER, N.S. -- There is shock and horror in a picturesque part of Western Cape Breton, after a 21-year-old woman was airlifted to hospital following an apparent shark attack on Friday.
While not entirely unheard of, this kind of thing is remarkably rare around here.
It was just off Margaree Island, along the west coast of Cape Breton, where a dream summer day on the water turned into a nightmare for a 21-year-old woman.
Apparent shark attack off west coast of Cape Breton leaves woman with serious injuries "This is terrifying. This is traumatic,” says Fred Whoriskey, excecutive director of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University.
Whoriskey says for something like this to happen in Canadian waters is even more rare than you might think.
"If you go to the international shark attack file, there isn't even a register for Canada on it. For unprovoked shark attacks, or provoked shark attacks. Either one of those particular things. So in our place, extraordinarily rare, and non-existent for at least 100 years."
Just before 5 p.m. on Friday, Nova Scotia RCMP received a call made from the boat, which had at least six people on it.
"The victim was swimming in the water, off the boat, and was allegedly attacked by this shark,” says Sgt. Andrew Joyce of the N.S. RCMP.
The boat was half a mile west of Margaree Island.
"The person was transported to shore by the boat that she was on,” says Joyce.
Joyce says once on shore, the woman received help from EHS and a local fire department. She was then taken to hospital locally, before being airlifted to Halifax.
Nobody knows for sure yet what kind of shark may have been involved, but Whoriskey says it was likely a white shark, an endangered species whose populations he says are beginning to rebound.
Whoriskey says it’s possible that a shark could have mistaken a person in the water for food.
"We do seem to be getting a lot of sightings and detections of the animals in offshore areas around islands,” says Whoriskey. "It is a place where other wildlife is congregating, notably seals.”
"We have a lot of young animals that seem to be coming up into our waters now. Which means that they're just learning how to survive. 'What is food? What do I attack? How do I do this?’”
RCMP confirm that the woman is from the local area, but weren’t able to provide an update on her condition on Saturday.
With ideal swimming weather now here, Whoriskey says others wondering how they can stay safe would be best off avoiding getting into the water along offshore islands like this.
"Getting into these kinds of areas, anchoring your boat and going for a swim, is kind of like going into the prime hunting grounds that sharks would be hanging out in," says Whoriskey
For now, it's a shocking incident that might never repeat itself around here in our lifetimes, but has people thinking twice about what lies beneath our waters here on the East Coast.
Some of these sharks will migrate through New England waters right into Canada.
Last year when a swimmer in Maine was attacked and killed by a white shark it prompted Maine to install 30 hydrophone buoys along its coast this summer to detect tagged white sharks.
When the results of that buoy information are released I believe both Maine and Nova Scotia will be surprised at the number of tagged white sharks swimming around. And remember untagged sharks can't ping any hydrophone buoy and they greatly outnumber the tagged sharks
As I say; if it wasn't for our ocean cold water ,and people could spend more time in the water, we would have more interactions...encounters..attacks by white sharks.-Tom
“Candygram.”
“She looked like a seal. Honest.”
Global warming, of course.
NS = Nova Scotia … got it
The “B” weekend crew must be working.....
No mention of global warming causing warming oceans allowing sharks to be that far north
No, you ARE food.
“Whoriskey says it’s possible that a shark could have mistaken a person in the water for food.”
Uhh...people are food dumshit.
Had a nice pair of flippers!😎
Beat me to it!
Nah. CLOWNvid-19.1 infected shark.
The other day I was talking to a white shark biologist friend who to me knows more about these sharks than anyone.
When I asked him if in the future if he would look at an article I was going to write that disputed this always a "mistaken identity" excuse, and I gave my reasons. He astounded me when he agreed; and gave different reasons, and he brought up things I hadn't thought about.
I won't mention them here, as I know how some of the "Publish or Perish biologists" steal other peoples work and ideas to get GRANTS and Publishing credits.
Sharks in the water-and sharks on land. -Tom
“No mention of global warming causing warming oceans allowing sharks to be that far north’”
*****
Taken a little farther, it’s the Earth’s revenge on humans manifesting itself in the shark.
It’s like Gaia, the planet’s consciousness, is moving the weather and the animals to extract vengeance.
I call it the “Remember the Dodo” theory.
Attacks in Canadian waters are rare because few people venture out in the freezing cold waters.
"N.S. woman, 21, taken to hospital" That could is like the FLORIDA MAN stories on Free Republic. -Tom
64 degrees.Any wet suit/dive boat? If not she’s nuts.
Jehovas Witness selling Watchtowers!
At 21 years old I hope she has a nice pair of “flippers.”
“No mention of global warming causing warming oceans allowing sharks to be that far north.”
I remember a shark book I read many years ago relating a story of a 35ft white shark that got tangled in a herring net off Nova Scotia. I don’t believe it’s that unusual. IIRC great whites are found in pretty much all oceans and and latitudes that have open water.
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